2023 Canadian Transnational - Epilogue

[Salim Belcadi]

The 2023 Canadian Transnational Chess Championship (CTN) ran between the 3rd and the 11th of June. It included a 7 double-round Blitz, an 11 round Rapid and a 9 round Classical for the Crown Section - 5 round for the General Sections. It resulted in multiple winners, 2 GM norms and 1 IM norm.

The Crown Section of the Classical was the strongest ever Swiss event held in Canada, with an average FIDE standard rating of 2387.

A total of 18 GMs, 20 IMs, 5 WGMs, 11 FMs, 4 WIMs and 2 CMs participated in the CTN, across all sections and events, i.e. 60 players with a FIDE Title (probably a new record on Canadian soil).

Congratulations to:

• GM Awonder Liang (USA) & IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (CAN) who tied first for the CTN with 12.875 points out of 18
• WGM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro for being the top woman player in the CTN with 8.375 points out of 18
• GM Toms Kantans (LAT) for winning the Crown Section of the Classical
• IM Thanh Nha Duong (CAN) for winning the Open Section of the Classical
• Leo Auersperg (CAN) for winning the U1600 of the Classical
• Vigneshwaran Krishnamurthy (CAN) for winning the U1300 of the Classical
• GM Awonder Liang (USA) for winning the Crown Section of the Rapid
• Richard Douglas (CAN) for winning the General Section of the Rapid
• GM Marin Bosiocic (CRO) for winning the Crown Section of the Blitz
• Ethan Moon (CAN) for winning the General Section of the Blitz

Also, huge congratulations to:

• IM Nikolay Noritsyn (CAN) for achieving his second GM Norm
• IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (CAN) for achieving his second GM Norm
• WIM Alice Lee (USA) for achieving both her 3^rd and final IM Norm and WGM Norm at 13 years old. Alice has already crossed 2400 - live FIDE rating, and will now become an International Master and a Woman Grandmaster

This exceptional tournament took several months to plan. It was the result of the hard work and dedication of many outstanding individuals who are committed to the growth and prosperity of our Chess Community.

First and foremost:

• Charles Lespérance, co-organizer and co-sponsor of the event
• FM Richard Bérubé, General Manager of the FQE

This event would have never happened without their outstanding contributions and tireless efforts.

Key contributors included:

• George Supol, Club Manager of Annex Chess Club of Toronto (ACC)
• Ismail Khachani, Club Manager of the upcoming Maplewood Chess Club of Montreal (MCC)

A long list of volunteers also contributed to planning, organizing and promoting the event, such as: Nicolas Bonnard, Nerlande Boulin, Hugh Brodie, WGM Anna Burtasova, Mark Crowther, Keith Denning, Melanie Directo, Luc Gauthier, Neil Goel, Eric Guipi Bopala, Luc Leclair, Thierry Libersan, Erik Malmsten, Olga Mushtaler, Glen Newbury, Michael Sutton, NM John Upper, Victor Zheng, and many others. It takes a village to raise a child :)

The team of Arbiters included:

• IA Aris Marghetis, Chief Arbiter. We can’t thank him enough for his outstanding performance and exceptional work ethic. Simply world-class.
• IA Omar Shah
• FA Alex Ferreira
• NA Alexandre Ber
• NA Keith Denning
• NA Anabelle Kovatcheva
• FQE Arbiter Joliet Philogène
• FQE Arbiter Abdelhamid Kocheida

Special thanks to:

• GM Hikaru Nakamura who recommended players, made introductions, and accepted the invitation to attend the last round
• Mike Sousa and his crew for documenting the event

And finally, thanks to all the players who participated in the CTN. We were delighted to see how much you enjoyed it.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Well done!
Glad to see some title norms too.

[Hans Jung]

Rave reviews! Stunning! Just some thoughts. The indepth preparations and carrying out of these magnificent events can be seen by the list of prestigious organisers and volunteers. The extensive arbiting team. Its wonderful to see Aris Marghetis back in action (where he should be!). Another classy move on the part of Hikaru Nakamura (he keeps growing on me to the point that I will be idolizing him soon) So impressed with the entire performance and thoroughly enjoyed the entertaining games to the point of being overwhelmed. A heartfelt thanks from this fan.

[Hans Jung]

First congratulations to all the prize winners! Very noteworthy in a hugely competitive field. Huge congratulations to two of my favorite players Awonder Liang and Shawn RodrigueLemieux for cowinning such a magnificent event. Also huge congratulations to both Shawn RodrigueLemieux and Nikolay Noritsyn for achieving grandmaster norms, such a hard thing to do especially in such a hugely competitive field. Hopefully soon Nikolay will complete his grandmaster title which he has deserved for years.
My jaw is slack in admiration to see Alice Lee in action who started out and thru most of the classical with a plus score against grandmasters and I assume running out of energy in two late losses against grandmasters. Alice's result was still so good that she completed her IM title and had a superb event at only age 13! Also the result of Thalia Cervantes Landeiro who I remember first meeting as a young girl at the Spice Cup newly arrived from Cuba and with the help of Susan Polgar and a lot of perseverance has evolved into a strong master. Kudos to all.

[Aris Marghetis]

Rave reviews! Stunning! Just some thoughts. The indepth preparations and carrying out of these magnificent events can be seen by the list of prestigious organisers and volunteers. The extensive arbiting team. Its wonderful to see Aris Marghetis back in action (where he should be!). Another classy move on the part of Hikaru Nakamura (he keeps growing on me to the point that I will be idolizing him soon) So impressed with the entire performance and thoroughly enjoyed the entertaining games to the point of being overwhelmed. A heartfelt thanks from this fan.

Wonderful post Hans, and thank you for the kind words!

And I just must add that there's one name notably missing from Salim's report, which is Salim himself!
I don't know that words can do justice to his phenomenal efforts across every aspect of this multi-event!
And right on, all the Organizers-Volunteers-Arbiters heartily worked together to make this so successful!

I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this, thanks Salim!!

[Salim Belcadi]

ERRATUM, I learnt that St John hosted a Swiss type event in 1988, the World Chess Festival, that was actually stronger than the CTN with an average rating of 2417 (31 GMs, 20 IMs, 5 FMs and 1 WGM) vs 2387 for the CTN. It also holds the record of the highest number of FIDE titled players in a single event: 57 vs 53 for the Classical portion of the CTN.

Should we try to beat that next year?

Thanks to Stephen Wright for bringing that to our attention.

[John Upper]

Should we try to beat that next year?

You mean this might become an annual event?!!! That would be fantastic!


Thanks to Salim and all the organizers.

Some photos of the Rapid portion here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9389435&type=3

[Aris Marghetis]

You mean this might become an annual event?!!! That would be fantastic!


Thanks to Salim and all the organizers.

Some photos of the Rapid portion here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9389435&type=3

Nice pictures John, they really capture the players' deep focusing, thanks.

[Hugh Brodie]

Suggestion - make future tournaments more spectator-friendly. Many people will be watching to top boards online, but some of us want to see the players in person. The times I visited - I was probably the only spectator there. I didn't stay long, since there was nowhere to sit and watch the games, so I didn't encourage others to come and watch. With all the high-tech equipment available at the FQE building, there should be a room for spectators displaying the top boards - ideally with a strong player providing analysis (and announce this fact in advance, so that people will come)

[Aris Marghetis]

Suggestion - make future tournaments more spectator-friendly. Many people will be watching to top boards online, but some of us want to see the players in person. The times I visited - I was probably the only spectator there. I didn't stay long, since there was nowhere to sit and watch the games, so I didn't encourage others to come and watch. With all the high-tech equipment available at the FQE building, there should be a room for spectators displaying the top boards - ideally with a strong player providing analysis (and announce this fact in advance, so that people will come)

Hi Hugh, I wonder if you were there only on the Crown-section-only days (Tue-Wed-Thu), or if you also came on the weekend? I'm asking because after the event moved to the big hall on Friday, so as to include the 3 General sections (Open-U1600-U1300), there were FIVE screens (two of which were huge) showing any ongoing DGT games. One of them also had a few chairs in front of it, but that wasn't possible for every screen as last-minute registrations for the General sections practically filled ever spot in the hall. Still, players from all the General sections seemed to like getting up from their games and checking out the nearest screen, no one had to go too far. Those screens were also super handy for posting pairings before the rounds. Omar ran those screens superbly.

[Hans Jung]

I think Salim if you manage to do this again next year you will become the preeminent organiser in Canada.